Air Gun Home :: View topic - Is it a Rifle or a Pistol

Bob La Londe · Veteran Member

I just ordered my most expensive airgun. A Kalibr Cricket bullpup in .25.

I also just got off my a$$ and finally fixed the leak in my .25 Marauder. One of the o-rings on the bottle block adaptor was leaking. Had a heck of a time getting the new Viton replacements in, but I finally did. How good of a job will be determined by how long it lasts before it starts leaking.

The Cricket should be here tomorrow. I'm not sure if I should call the Cricket a pistol or a rifle its so short. Maybe when I hold it in my hands I'll know what to call it. For now I am waffling between Pisfle and Rifstol.

I went with Joe Brancato at AirTanksForSale because I wanted a little bigger air tank anyway, and he will price match anybody. I thought about AOA, but Ive heard a couple complaints about service with mail order customers, and I wasn't planning to drive up to Phoenix to buy it over the counter any time soon. Actually Joe beat the price from AOA, and he had the gun I wanted in stock. No hedging around. I am glad I called. The next morning Adam with AirTanks called me to verify the order, and let me know it was being shipped that day. That was nice follow up.

I'll let you guys know how the overall experience goes.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Still alive out there, Bob? Haven't seen you around in awhile!

Bob La Londe · Veteran Member

Bob La Londe · Veteran Member

Well, my Cricket arrived about 3:45PM today. Its got about 190 bar according to the gage so I could shoot it, but the scope I want to use won't arrive until Monday. I do have a cheap Tru-Glo 4x in the safe that has never been used so if time allows I may shoot it tomorrow afternoon.

I'm meeting one of my fishing buddies out at the lake at O:Dark-Thirty in the morning, so I won't be doing anything with it until I get back if I'm not too tired by then.

I would have shot it today, but I met one of my other fishing buddies out at another lake just after the gun arrived. I was waiting on the Fed-Ex driver so I could leave.

First appearances are pretty much what I expected. I thought about doing an unboxing video, and realized you guys are probably pretty tired of those. Maybe I'll do some shooting videos with it next week.

Bob La Londe · Veteran Member

AirGunEric · Site Admin

A common problem I've noticed over many years on the interweeb is that you have the initial topic- i.e. "what do you think of this rifle" and someone comes along and says, typically on low-end stuff "needs improvement" and on high-end stuff "greatest gun ever made"- seems almost like many people who spend larger dollars on things don't want to admit something fell short of their expectation.

Then of course, you get the "expert by proxy" types- first guy who bought rifle says "great" or "not so great", another guy takes this to and says "I HEARD it's great/not great" third guy comes along, never having had one in their hands and says "great gun" or "not great gun" depending on what the prevailing view might be. I've found that opinions on the interweeb need to be parsed and trying to define whose opinion is relevant is half the trick...

Bob La Londe · Veteran Member

Well I shot it a bit this afternoon. Starting at just under 190 bar per the gage on the gun the first few shots 946-949 with Diablo Exact Kings 25.39 grain pellets. At 3 magazines and down to about 100 bar it was shooting 909-895 for the last three shots of the 36. Also, had 8-10 dry fires in there as the Cricket magazine will allow you to feed and fire when its empty. Since I've been shooting Marauders which won't it took me a little bit to get used to that.

44+ solid shots from 190 bar. I think from a 250 fill I'll get the 70 or so I am looking for. Certainly more than the 60 my five 12 shot magazines will hold. I am hoping for 60+ on the regulator.

Summary of cursory shot data. 50+ FPE is out of the box, and 70+ shot count seems to be on the table. Its certainly better for power and shot count than my bottled .25 Marauder that gives me 23-24 shots at about 46 FPE.

I can't believe I am saying this. I might actually make the trigger a little heavier. Its pretty smooth, and drops off so easy that I fired before I thought it would twice. No accidental discharges, but a bit of a surprise if you know what I mean.

I have not filled the gun from a tank with a decent gage yet to check it so I don't know how good the gun gage is.

I shot it down to 60 bar, and while elevation certainly started to fall off the gun kept hitting where I expected it to from shot to shot. I was drilling plastic soda bottles out by the fence at 64-69 yards.

I am filling up my new bigger tank right now so I can't shoot it any more until it is filled. My little bottle is down to 2500 PSI. I guess I could tether it and shoot it for that for a little while. That is above what I am told is the regulator pressure. Nah, its getting dark and dinner is ready.

More later...

Bob La Londe · Veteran Member

Seems to have sprung a leak.

Sigh!

Further reading shows that a certain number of these guns spring a leak in the first couple fills.

On a positive note. The thing is an absolute tack driver. Easiest airgun to dial in I have shot yet.

Bob La Londe · Veteran Member

I emailed Joe at Air Tanks last night. He emailed back about early this morning saying, "Its 4am here, called back after 10 and we will take care of everything."

I like the sound of that.